Outlets matter: an ethnographic study of an organized clandestine Chinese immigrant social network in the United States

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Abstract

Recent government statistics shows an
astonishing figure of illegal Chinese workers coming into the US every year. Reportedly,
it represents only a portion of the Chinese illegally residing in the United States.
There exist multiple layers of barriers, such as the Pacific Ocean and other cultural
and language obstacles. The question would be why, how, and who kept coming? The
ethnographic study of Chinese workers is to reveal the patterns of social network that
has been operating well in the process. The network is a broader sense network from
societal level, including three dimensions: nodes, ties and outlets. The network must
also be treated as the mediator for economic incentive in order to fully understand
illegal Chinese immigration in the US. The study also finds that cultural and network
patterns are the most important determinant of the illegal Chinese Immigrant to US. A
social network analysis exhibits that the network structure is so special and
encompasses at least four key outlets in the system. These findings have important
theoretical and practical implications. The research contributes to the theoretical
development in light of discovering a unique three dimensional network pattern within
Chinese ethnic immigrants' culture, different from the universally accepted traditional
two elements network analysis-either in a "whole ecological network", or an "egocentric
network". In practice, the study findings strongly suggest the significance of such
network as to immigration culture. It provides the bedrock for the whole system and
gives rise to the issue of illegal immigration. Namely, if the criminal justice system
cuts the sustainable network off at any level, there would be no more illegal Chinese
immigrants. The findings show specifics of the type of social network that is the fount
and matrix of Chinese clandestine immigration systems.